Application of Territorii Method in Two Spontaneous Settlements of Puerto Madryn, Argentina
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Geography Papers 2016, 62 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.6018/geografia/2016/260061 ISSN: 1989-4627 APPLICATION OF TERRITORII METHOD IN TWO SPONTANEOUS SETTLEMENTS OF PUERTO MADRYN, ARGENTINA Dra. María Paula Ferrari - Dr. Horacio Bozzano This work analyzes a problematic related to the conformation of new spontaneous settlements, emerged as a consequence of accelerated population growth in the city of Puerto Madryn (Chubut Province, Patagonia Argentina) in the last years. The aim of this work is make a socio-territorial diagnosis in two spontaneous settlements: La Lomita and Alta Tensión, characterized by the presence of vulnerability conditions and located in areas of natural and technological hazards. For this purpose we apply Territorii method and its eight phases: real, lived, past, legal, thought, possible, smart and arranged territories, in order to join the communities for building more sustainable territories. It also aims to identify in the participants of the process how much are present the four modes of transformation proposed by the International Network of Territorial Intelligence: subjective, social, environmental and decision-making. The intention is to incorporate the vision of Territorial Intelligence (TI) through the application of one of its methods: Territorii, one of its pillars “the four legs of the table” of Territorial Intelligence. The work is organized in four parts. The first describes the context of the emergence of spontaneous settlements in the city of Puerto Madryn. Puerto Madryn, located on the Golfo Nuevo in Chubut province, is an important city in the north of Patagonia Argentina. The city evidenced an outstanding demographic growth between 1970 and 2010, multiplying its population by thirteen in that period, going from 6,100 inhabitants to 81,995 inhabitants. This growth contributed to extend the urbanization towards the west-northwest sector preferably, generating transformations in the urban structure and a process of territorial uncontrol. These transformations are linked with the emergence of new precarious and unplanned settlements formed mostly by internal migrants and neighboring countries (Bolivians and Paraguayans), attracted by employment opportunities in the industrial and construction sectors. The second part unfolds the theoretical perspectives and methodologies that guided the work. When we speak of spontaneous, irregular, informal or unplanned settlements, we refer to those places where a person or community is established, regardless of the regulations or rules established by the authorities in charge of urban planning. This type of settlement includes individuals housed in self-built housing, characterized by population densification, that is to say, by a process by which new housing units are added in the air space or to the side of a parcel already produced or in production. The peculiarity of spontaneous settlements lies in their informality or irregularity, that is, in the absence of recognition and legal rights of occupation of urban land. Spontaneous settlements arise when the local administration and urban development authorities are unable to meet the needs of the entire community, and when a group of people requires a place to live and does not have the economic resources to acquire a home through the formal mechanisms of access to it (for example housing plans or mortgage loans). In most cases they occupy vacant spaces, marginalized within urban areas, occupying border or peri-urban spaces. On the other hand, Territorii, theoretical and methodological corpus, selected to carry out the socio-territorial diagnosis of spontaneous settlements in this work, constitutes one of the most applied scientific methods in the Latin American Scientific Network Territorios Posibles, member of the International Network of Territorial Intelligence. Territorii is flexible in its application, with an integral vision of the territories, incorporating the participation of community, political, economic and scientific-technical actors. Geography Papers, 62 (2016) M. PAULA FERRARI & H. BOZZANO In the third section Territorii method is applied to the settlements under study. The purpose is to help the neighbors of these fragile and vulnerable environments to do so in more dignified places, that is, to produce microtransformations, to accompany processes of change, recognizing complementarities and cooperation between citizens, organizations, institutions, technicians and scientists. Alta Tension and La Lomita settlements - named for their own occupants - belong to the unplanned expansion area Nueva Chubut, located northwest of the city of Puerto Madryn. They are approximately seventy hectares where about eight hundred families live and have spontaneously demanded the land they occupy to subsist. This area is located at the foot of the cliff where the flat plateau that surrounds the city of Puerto Madryn descends towards the coastal plain. The occupation with dwellings is done in mostly flat areas but there are houses in slopes. Alta Tension settlement extends approximately nine blocks and in its sector crosses the municipal high tension line. La Lomita settlement is adjacent to Alta Tension and was named for its occupants because it is located on an elevated area topographically (hill). Finally, the work concludes from the "four legs of the table" of territorial intelligence in relation to the results obtained. The theoretical-methodological readings made with Territorii for the settlements Alta Tensión and La Lomita within the framework of the Territorial Intelligence perspective allow us to elaborate some final reflections, useful for future works. In relation to the "four legs of the table" of the Territorial Intelligence, we observe the following: the action of the State has different modus operandi. The PROMEBA Program contributes to the improvement of the living conditions of the inhabitants not only of the settlements under study but also of five other neighboring settlements; yet its dominant style of top-down management does not tend to generate collective appropriation or dialogues of knowledge. The participation of the business world is secondary and indirect. These are companies in charge of carrying out the planned works in the framework of the PROMEBA, therefore it does not tend to generate a stable link with the communities of the settlements under study. The process of work and linkage that has been initiated by the IGEOPAT (Institute of Geographic Research of Patagonia, dependent of the National University of Patagonia San Juan Bosco) within the framework of the Scientific Network Possible Territories in the INTI, only six months is producing the first results. Confidence relationships are built with the referents of the two settlements. The actions carried out so far - meetings and workshops - allow us to envisage an auspicious linking process, particularly with the results obtained from the workshop on identities, needs and dreams. The communities are the central subject in the Territorial Intelligence, and pay attention to their identities, needs and dreams have opened roads and possibilities that are not specifically covered or attended to by the PROMEBA (regularization dominial, basic services) or the Provincial Health Directorate (Primary health care). Needs of the inhabitants as the construction of a collective public space for leisure, recreation and the realization of events such as the Day of the Child or others, are built in better conditions with all four legs of the table. In relation to the instances of transformation with territorial intelligence, work with the other offers the possibility of recognizing one in better conditions, in its interior, in its subjectivities. In these months of action research it can be said that this transformation has already begun. A guideline that contributes to verify that social transformations are taking place are the solidarity and cooperative attitudes of the neighborhood referents with the provincial health officer and one of the authors of this work, representative of the scientific and university world. Attempts to build a communal garden, knowledge of the damage it implies for some to live very close to a high voltage electrical wiring and the knowledge of the damages that the rains carry in the state of the streets, are guidelines that allow to glimpse that signs of a process of environmental transformation are taking place. Decision-making transformations are generally the last ones to occur, so that in the current state of the action-research process it is not possible to verify them. Geography Papers, 62 (2016) .